Report says ISIS axes gender mixing in Mosul universities

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant group has ordered the segregation of male and female university students in the northern Iraqi province of Mosul, local media outlet Al-Sumaria News reported an informed source as saying Thursday.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Al-Sumaria News that ISIS called university professors and deans into meeting and stipulated that male and female students should not be mixed in one classroom, Al Arabiya reported.

According to the source, the radical group also decided that Sept. 1 will be the first day for universities to open with "female students starting their day from 9 am to 2 pm while males [will study from] from 2 pm to 6 pm."

ISIS has also told the professors and deans that curriculum involving political science and law courses should be changed, the source said without detailing the expected modifications.

The group also ordered that the name of the visual arts department should be changed to "decorative sketching," the source said.

ISIS, which made international headlines when it declared itself an Islamic Caliphate in July, seized Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq, on June 10 in a lightning offensive.

Segregating the sexes seems to be a continuation of ISIS' attempts in furthering its conservative application of Islamic teaching.

In mid-July, ISIS reportedly gave shopkeepers in Mosul strict instructions to cover the faces of mannequins.

Christians in Mosul had to flee the city after ISIS warned them to either convert to Islam, pay a tax or face death. Other minority groups such as Yazidis and Shiite Turkumen left Mosul after the radical Sunni group claimed power, according to reports.